Kaplica Zmartwychwstania Pańskiego
Wayside Shrines
Chapel, Stare Miasto district. Date according to OpenStreetMap: 1861. A chapel is a small place of worship, often beside a cemetery, hospital or a larger church.
History
When Rakowicki Cemetery was founded in 1803, a makeshift wooden chapel was built there, which the Kraków press sharply criticised. Building a new one was made difficult by the Austrian military authorities, because the cemetery lay right next to the fortress's belt of fortifications, and the first neo-Gothic design was rejected. In the end the chapel was built at their own expense by the banker Ludwik Helcel and his wife Anna, who entrusted the construction to Józef Czeszka, an Austrian lieutenant colonel of artillery. Permission was obtained in 1856, the foundation stone was laid on 27 July 1861, and Bishop Ludwik Łętowski consecrated the chapel on 28 October 1862. The low, Neoclassical building has no towers. The high altar holds a painting of the Resurrection of Christ, painted in 1862 by Józef Planek.
Did you know?
Beneath the chapel is the Helcel family crypt. In accordance with the founders' wishes, only those members of the family who knew and used the Polish language may be buried there.